The District. Of Colombia.

A couple weeks ago, I went to visit my friend Caroline in Washington, DC. Caroline and I met in Mrs. Thackery's kindergarten class. Now she goes to George Washington University. Except this summer she's working for GW housing and being a high-powered intern (seriously, I saw her on the job) and a Texas representative's office.

And that's where she was the first day I was there. I went to go visit her (after a slight detour caused by not reading the name of the metro stop I was getting off at). We tried to jump ahead of the line so Caroline could give me a tour of the capitol, but even the VIP badge that someone in her office came up with didn't cut it. I think they would have let us in if were both ten years older and dressed in power suits. I decided I don't want to be a congressional aid. Ever. Then I went to kick it at the Supreme Court for awhile, and took this elevator picture. No justice sightings.



That night we met up with Caroline's interior-design-major friend and ate Indian food under a lovely pavilion on the GW campus.

Caroline tripped twice that day--the first time in front of some important representative. The second time, she skinned her knee (through her pants). She shows her wounds.


Indian food under the pavilion was followed by 7-11 Ben and Jerry's ice cream and watching The Princess Bride in Caroline's apartment.

The next day, Saturday, we hit the Newseum. This is part of their exhibit on the Sept. 11 coverage.

While we were there, Caroline got a phone call from the university informing her she had two new roommates. Moving in. Right now. She was more than a little surprised.

We headed back, but stopped to watch skateboarders. Caroline pointed out that then never actually land tricks. To be fair, we saw a few good landings. At least three.


I ran to Trader Joe's for picnic items and cooked them up while Caroline tried to make space for the new roommates. We packed up the picnic and headed to Wolf Trap--an outdoor theater--to watch The Gondoliers. The picnic was wonderful. Chicken and sun dried tomato bratwursts on wheat rolls with caramelized onions and hummus; zucchini; cherry tomatoes; various sweet things.
It started raining shortly after intermission. We had lawn seats and taken the shuttle up, so we couldn't keep watching and we couldn't leave. We ran for cover under an overhang of the main building and chatted for the rest of the show. After that, Caroline introduced me to the first Bourne movie (which lived up to her high praise).

Sunday we went to church. Harry Reid is in the same ward. I felt like that should be in a guide book: "See representative Harry Reid at church! Sunday at 10:00...." It would certainly be an off-the-beaten-track tourist destination.